I’ve Got the Willies Wednesday: Claustrophobia

Well, this is a very special “Willies Wednesday” because the topic that I am talking about today is something that doesn’t actually give me the willies, but rather gives one of my brothers the willies, and I definitely used this knowledge to my advantage growing up. You see, my brother Jeremy is claustrophobic. He hates small places including RVs, and tents. We went camping A LOT when we were young as it’s one of my dad’s favorite activities, and whereas I didn’t much care for it because of all the bugs, and dirt, and boring food, one of Jeremy’s main qualms with this activity was having to sleep in a small tent at night. This led to many nights where I was jarringly awoken by Jeremy’s frantic screams, as he clawed at the tent looking for a way out.

I chuckle about this every now and then when I think about it. Yes, I am a bad, bad person. This is not what I want to talk about today though, but rather another cruel thing that I did to play on Jeremy’s fear. I’m talking about the dreaded blanket over the head. Now it seems innocent enough, but apparently when you have claustrophobia, this is not so fun, and I found this out pretty early on. As I thought it was hilarious to scare my brother, I would sneak up on him with a blanket, throw it over his head, and then hold it there while he screamed and pleaded with me to take it off.

I would leave it on for a little while to get the maximum effect, and then finally I would release him, and promptly scamper off, as he would chase me once recovered, which was remarkably quickly. Here’s how it would go: I put the blanket on his head, he screamed, I let him go, he ran after me, I would hide somewhere. If he caught up with me he would usually punch me, and if he was able to do this, he would then run and lock himself up somewhere. This could go on for quite a while. We were cruel, cruel children. Don’t go thinking that I was the only bad guy here though- he also knew my fears and would take advantage of them, such as the time he threw a spider at me (yes, I do have arachnophobia).

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BWAHAHA, nice post. Spider Web collection– that was my secret weapon, I also secretly put the house on hydraulic stilts in case I wanted to raise the house a million feet to take advantage of your “fear of falling.”

I never got in the way of the chases. I did, however, trick Jeremy into going into the basement, and then hold the door shut on him as he screamed. I had to run away much faster, though, because if Jeremy hit me he wouldn’t then flee.
Also, just watched The Graduate in a cinema. Watch it again, and notice all the extremely close shots (also, no shot/reverse shots, just really close 2 shots). I was confused at first, but Hoffman is feeling clautrophobic in his available life paths. It’s cool.